Cystinosis is a metabolic disorder characterised by the abnormal accumulation of the amino acid cystine in cells leading to a slow destruction of all major organs. If patients diagnosed with cystinosis are untreated, death due to kidney failure ensues in the second decade of life. A number of studies have shown the ability of the drug cysteamine (Cystagon®) to lower cystine accumulation within cells resulting in reduced organ and tissue damage. Cysteamine therapy however, is associated with a number of side effects involving the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system. Most of these arise due to the large amount of cysteamine present in the stomach and gut following administration. In addition, cysteamine possesses an unpleasant taste and smell, resulting in poor patient compliance. In an attempt to overcome these problems, a number of pro-drug derivatives of cysteamine and cystamine, the disulfide analogue of cysteamine, have been synthesised and evaluated. Pro-drugs were synthesised using a route established in our laboratories. Briefly, cystamine dihydrochloride was basified and allowed to react with a number of cyclic anhydrides under basic conditions. The resulting di-acids were reacted with carbonyldiimidazole and monoBoc-cystamine to yield the desired pro-drugs. Removal of the tBoc-protecting group was achieved in a facile manner by use of trifluoroacetic acid to yield product. The efficacy of the synthesised pro-drugs was determined by incubation of 50μM compound in a suspension of cultured cystinotic fibroblasts, with 50μM cysteamine as control. Cell growth was measured at 72 h and the level of thiol determined. All except one of the pro-drugs tested were significantly more effective than the control at lowering the cystine burden of the cells. Further work will concentrate on repeating these studies and evaluating a more robust Structure Activity Relationship for these compounds. The overall aim of all this work remains the production of an odourless, tasteless and orally active treatment for cystinosis and, if possible, improve on the current dosing regimen of every 6h. By using pro-drugs, cysteamine will be chemically camouflaged and hence, the side effects associated with its administration will be minimised or even entirely abolished.

No / Four new ternary crystalline molecular complexes have been synthesised from a common 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid (3,5-dnda) and 4,4'-bipyridine (bipy) pairing with a series of amino-substituted aromatic compounds (4-aminobenzoic acid (4-aba), 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)benzoic acid (4-dmaba), 4-aminosalicylic acid (4-asa) and sulfanilamide (saa)). The ternary crystals were created through the application of complementary charge transfer and hydrogen-bonding interactions. For these systems a dimer was created through a charge-transfer interaction between two of the components, while hydrogen bonding between the third molecule and this dimer completed the construction of the ternary co-crystal. All resulting structures display the same acidpyridine interaction between 3,5-dnba and bipy. However, changing the third component causes the proton of this bond to shift from neutral OHN to a salt form, O(-) HN(+) , as the nature of the group hydrogen bonding to the carboxylic acid was changed. This highlights the role of the crystal environment on the level of proton transfer and the utility of ternary systems for the study of this process.

The studies on cocrystals and salts presented in the the chapters clearly bring out the influence of intermolecular interactions as the main evaluators of the cocrystal-salt regime. The observations made in Chapter 2 indicate that in case if the cocrystal formation is through hydrogen bonds the location of the proton decides the nature of the complex in the energy landscape. The observation that the coformer controls the topology of intermolecular space as demonstrated in Chapter 3 provides insights into the importance of directionality rather than strength of intermolecular interactions. Indeed halogen bonding in cocrystals gain importance in this context.